Thoughts on some recent films:
Eastern Promises: Not sure if David Cronenberg's best days are officially behind him, but this alarmingly anonymous Russian mob drama continues the downward slide of Spider and A History Of Violence. He seems to have entered a for-hire phase, following the early bodily horror squirmfests that made him famous (The Brood, Videodrome, The Fly) and the fascinating, deeply personal adaptations of literary mindfucks (Naked Lunch, Crash).
Those earlier films succeeded precisely because they seemed to be taking place in their own peculiar worlds. But Cronenberg's recent movies are set more or less in the real world, but they seem cut off from any details of everyday life. In Eastern Promises, no one ever says or does anything that isn't pertinent to the plot, no character seems to have a life outside the constraints of the script. Viggo Mortensen and Armin Mueller-Stahl give fine, nicely shaded performances, but they seem to be floating in space, not enhanced or supported by anything surrounding them. Cronenberg's direction is airless, but not in a seemingly intentional way; frankly, it just looks badly directed. Not a terrible movie, but a crushingly uninteresting one.
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford: I like Ron Hansen's novel, too, but writer/director Andrew Dominik is apparently so in awe of the damned thing he doesn't bother adapting it, merely illustrating. For maybe the first half of this very long movie, Dominik seems in control: The expressionist visuals, layered soundtrack and eccentric performances suggest what would happen if David Lynch made a western.
As we plod on beyond the two-hour mark, Dominik's stylistic traits become annoying (when in doubt, cut to time-lapse photography of clouds), and he uses a narrator to read huge chunks of Hansen's prose, literally describing what we can already see...which makes you wonder why we're watching, not reading. On the other hand, given the abruptness of certain scenes and performances (Zooey Deschanel makes a late appearance and has maybe one or two lines), I suspect we're seeing a cut-down of a much larger, possibly more successful whole. If only they'd cut out some of those clouds...
Still worthwhile, for fine performances by Casey Affleck, Brad Pitt and Sam Rockwell, a gloomy score by Nick Cave and some wondrous photography from Roger Deakins (who, considering his awesome body of work, should just legally change his name to The Great Roger Deakins). Probably of greater interest if you're a western fan, though the use of the songs I'm A Good Old Rebel and Jesse James will make you wish you were watching Walter Hill's The Long Riders instead.
Gone, Baby, Gone: Again with the time-lapse clouds and the Casey Affleck!
The time-lapse photography is one of the few stylistic cliches director Ben Affleck allows himself in this mostly straightforward, astonishingly downbeat adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel. This study of moral choices and the human heart set against the class divides of contemporary Boston is also a showcase for some great acting, particularly from Casey Affleck (who knew?) as a working class detective, Amy Ryan as a not-quite-grieving mother of a missing girl and Titus Welliver as the little girl's uncle.
There's a sometimes unfortunate tendency to speechify, and sometimes the film is conflicted about whether to be a crime melodrama or character study (the character study is more interesting, though in fairness, Affleck's direction makes what could have been standard suspense scenes crackle with tension), but on the whole, this is the best American studio film of the season.
